Letter: Battle of Terminal 5

Sir: Polly Toynbee's article (13 October) on the Heathrow Terminal 5 proposals is welcome, but unnecessarily pessimistic. T5 is by no means inevitable. The local councils fighting this enormous expansion of Heathrow have made several major dents in BAA's case.

And we aren't finished yet. We have not pulled out of the planning inquiry. We have only scaled down our operation, and will restore it in full as soon as we can put together the extra funding.

Doubling the size of Heathrow by building a fifth terminal is the most serious environmental threat to a large part of London and the Home Counties we have ever faced. To suggest that London as a commercial centre would be seriously damaged if T5 does not go ahead is scaremongering.

DAVID WILLIAMS

Leader of the Council

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames